


New Kid on the Block

by sixtieshairdo



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: Attraction, Friendship, Inside Brian's headspace, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 00:24:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixtieshairdo/pseuds/sixtieshairdo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian's new in Salem. He befriends Will and is intrigued by Sonny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Kid on the Block

Frankly, he’s more than a little pissed off at Sonny’s pining after an oblivious, back-and-forth Will but hey, he’s new to this scene. These guys are younger; they have more time to waste, thinking and looking for what they want. It’s not like Salem’s frighteningly homophobic; it’s just that the town is horrendously ignorant. It is also tainted with sex scandals of every sort which makes it even stranger that the town is so unkind to Will’s coming out. Though he’s just arrived to live here a few months back, he’s already heard local gossip of not-so-anonymous three-way rendezvous, confusing heritage patterns, and unhealthy levels of low self-esteem from expectations of body image.

As a gay man, Brian knows the stereotypes imposed on him. He can pass off as straight; hell, some gay folk even condemn him for being “straight-acting” but that is really beneath his concerns. He knows he’s tall, dark and handsome, and to be fair to every other muscle queen, looking the way he does doesn’t come easy. And that’s where he meets Will anyhow – at the gym.

Will was hogging the stationary bike, plugged in to techno and looking like he wanted to ride into another time and place and get the hell out of Salem. He’ll be the first to admit – Will used to look like the kind of twink he’d be going for. Young, blonde, blue-eyed with lips that look like they’d be good at sucking cock – yes, Will looked the part. But over the weeks of small talk and quiet observation, Brian’s figured him out. Coming out has taken a toll on the kid. Will’s slight frame quickly grew muscular and strong, he cut off all his hair, and where he used to hide behind layers of clothes, he’s now hiding behind layers of muscle.

He’s not going to judge Will for that. Every person deals with insecurities differently. Looking bigger and stronger, donning tighter clothing to highlight defined biceps and pectorals, is one way to tell homophobes to back the fuck off. The worrying thing would be if Will gets addicted to this kind of lifestyle. Protein shakes, hours hiding in the sweat and adrenalin of the gym, and avoiding eye contact are all methods of burying the pain inside.

And that’s what made him ask Will out to The Spot. Just to hang out and ease his mind a bit by being around other gay people. It was important that Will feels safe, that he can feel like he belongs somewhere. It worked out nicely when Will recognized someone from the bar – Neil – and the three of them struck up a good dynamic. Now, they go to gym together, have occasional dinners together, and drink together. It seemed healthy enough. He likes Neil but the guy has control issues. When Neil broke up with his boyfriend, he chose to drink to deal with his pain. Will’s the sort of friend who would drink with his miserable friend rather than stay sober and try to talk him out of it. Soon enough, Brian becomes the babysitter for the two. That includes, of course, making sure they don’t get into a bar fight with anyone who looks at them funny, driving them home without vomit stains down their shirts, and breaking them apart whenever their impromptu make-out sessions look like they are headed another direction.

Brian’s okay with all this – mostly – but when he found out that Will was accused of murder and he didn’t even tell the police that he was with his gay friends at a gay bar on the night of Stefano’s death, Brian found that incredibly insulting. He shouldn’t take it so personally but it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? That Will was risking his freedom for even more hiding is beyond comprehension.

And that’s how he meets Sonny.

Defensive, clearly-in-love-with-Will, Sonny.

Brian doesn’t know how to feel about this guy. Will talks about Sonny several times before but never invites him to join their bar nights or dinners together. There’s never any clear reason why but Brian suspects that Will either doesn’t want to share his friends with Sonny, or he doesn’t want to share Sonny with anyone else.

Or it could be both.

Though Sonny looks like a sensible, well-grounded kind of guy, he is highly defensive of Will’s actions.

Brian sees Sonny’s guard slip a little when he pointed out that Sonny was clearly harbouring more-than-friends feelings for Will.

It shouldn’t bother him because it’s really none of his business, but somehow, it does.

…

Sonny is hard to read. He’s almost too good to be real. Running a Google search on ‘Sonny Kiriakis’ leads Brian to finding out that Sonny’s real name is Jackson – he smiled a little at that, though he’s not sure why – and that he’s got a record so clean it’s worthy of putting on a pedestal as a benchmark for every young gay man. Sonny’s not only well-travelled, he’s a pro-choice, pro-love, gay rights activist and loves dogs.

He laughs at this.

If he finds out Sonny’s an environmentalist and a strict vegan he might laugh even louder.

So that becomes his excuse for coming down to Common Grounds. To study and learn more about the mysterious Sonny. It’s an excuse he’s comfortable with anyway.

…

Sonny isn’t easy to talk to. His eyes aren’t unkind but he carries a cold nonchalance on his shoulders. He’s still defensive about Will and Brian can understand why.

Thick skin comes in handy, that’s for sure.

“So this is your coffee house, huh? I like the wordplay.”

Sonny smiles but continues wiping the counter down before pointing his thumb to the menu board behind him.

“Thanks, man. What can I do you for?”

He leans forward, hands pressed against the edge of the counter, straining his eyes over Sonny’s shoulder. He notices how Sonny shifts aside, looks away, uninterested.

He settles for a cappuccino and small talk. He slides exact change across the counter and marvels at the way Sonny swipes everything down into his hand and ignores much of his presence.

Sonny starts making the drink and brushes him off politely by telling him to get comfortable at an available table.

He retreats with his palms up in surrender. He knows when to back off when he’s not wanted.

A little later, the cappuccino arrives with a pretty patterned flower heart on it and though it’s probably just a standard design Sonny does for everyone, he’ll take that – and Sonny’s less indifferent smile this time around – as a good omen.

He settles down and takes out a book to read. Sometimes, you have to let nature take its course.

…

That night at The Spot, Brian asks Will why he never asks Sonny along. Will stares blankly at him for a split second before putting on his trademark white wide smile that never quite reaches his eyes. Brian is surprised by the distance that closes between them when Will steps into his space.

“This isn’t Sonny’s scene, man. He’s more of a, let’s-go-for-an-indie-concert kinda guy, you know? Let’s-have-coffee-and-talk-about-art. I think he’s got better things to do then get wasted here.”

Will’s hand grips Brian’s shoulder a little too hard before he lets go and gets another beer. Though Brian has only gotten to know Will over a span of a couple of months, he can easily tell that Will didn’t like his question about the lack of Sonny’s presence. Will’s demeanor tells him that he doesn’t like Brian bringing Sonny up for some reason. Frankly, he isn’t interested to know why Will has his defenses up so high when it concerns Sonny but he finds himself thinking about looking up on local indie bands and poetry slam sessions.

He watches Will take a big gulp of his beer, blue eyes daring him to say anything more, before Neil comes along with new arm candy in tow and introduces the red head as Jamie. Introductions ensue and the tension eases away between Brian and Will.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, chestnut hair and brown eyes catches his eye on the dance floor. Amidst the groping and kissing, he realizes he’s forgotten the guy’s name. That doesn’t stop him from fucking his one night stand hard into his bed later on, his fingers curling into the dark locks. Sudden thoughts of coffee caused him to fumble a little, surprised by the surfacing of a specific repression, but Brian brushes the trigger aside and focuses on the matter at hand.

He’s not known for being task-oriented for nothing.


End file.
